Separation agreement scam using the name Hania Marmon (or Hania Allen)
Date First Reported: March 2014
Primary Name Associated: Hania Marmon
Description of Potential Fraud:
[Updated May 2014]
33 lawyers in Canada and the U.S. have notified us that they received an email from the purported Hania Marmon (or Hania Allen) looking to retain them with regards to a collecting overdue payments resulting from a separation agreement.
This is a classic bad cheque scam that presents as legal matter requiring the assistance of a lawyer. In this scam lawyers will be duped into wiring real funds from their trust accounts after depositing a fake cheque received as payment from the debtor (who is part of the fraud). See our Confirmed Fraud Page for more of an explanation of how these frauds work and to see other names associated with it. Our Fraud Fact Sheet lists the red flags of a bogus legal matter that is really a fraud.
Here is the initial email sent by the fraudster to the lawyer:
From: Hania Marmon [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 5:08 AM
To:
Subject: Legal Representation
March 11, 2014
Dear Counsel:
This letter is regarding inquiry if your firm handles family law cases. My ex-husband violated court order in payment of child,
spousal and medical support. Please advise if you handle such case.
Sincerely,
Hania Marmon
Replying to the email brought this response:
Sorry for the delay in response, i am contacting your office because of an agreement in place and I have tried calling but its little bit difficult to reach your law office due to the much hours difference in time, my ex husband Mr. Allen has failed to obey court order as agreed.
We entered a separation agreement incorporated, merged into and made part of the court decree for a settlement of child support, spousal support, and medical support of $1,311.020.00, he has paid me $436,820.00 but still owing $874,200.00 and he refuse now the stipulated time for completion of payment has long elapsed and i know he has the financial means to pay the balance owed to me.
And he refuse to produce the balance I request your legal services with regards to compelling him to remit balance owed to me with full force Mr. Allen now lives in Pasadena, California. He is a citizen in your country.
Please Attached is a copy of the Separation Agreement and the Final Judgment.I will be pleased to provide further information on this case on request and I expect this to be resolved in a timely manner.
I wish to retain your firm for this purpose and let me know your retainer fee to handle this case. Please send me a copy of your retainer agreement and if the terms are acceptable I will retained your firm so we can commence the process without delay,
Thank you for your cooperation.
Ms Hania.
6F, 7-11 hamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0853, Japan.
How to handle a real or suspected fraud
If you have been targeted by any of these frauds, please forward any of the emails and supporting documents that you have received to [email protected]
If you suspect you are acting on a matter that might be a fraud, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 (416-598-5899). We will talk you through the common fraud scenarios we are seeing and help you spot red flags that may indicate you are being duped. This will help you ask appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate or not. If the matter you are acting on turns out to be a fraud and there is a potential claim, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential claims costs.
If you have been successfully duped, please immediately notify LAWPRO as there may be a claim against you. Instructions on how to report a claim are here.
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Fraud Fact Sheet More fraud prevention information and resources are available on the practicePRO Fraud page, including the Fraud Fact Sheet, a handy reference for lawyers and law firm staff that describes the common frauds and the red flags that can help identify them.
March 18, 2014 at 12:21 pm, evin said:
I received a very similar email today by a Hania Marmon. I work in a tribal court and was concerned about whether or not this was an legitimate email. Thank You.
March 21, 2014 at 9:09 am, Ashley Lorance said:
I received a very similar email from a Hania Allen, married to a “Mr. Marmon.” Thanks.
March 24, 2014 at 8:36 pm, Robert Neff said:
I received an unsolicited e-mail from “Ms. Hania Allen” regarding her “separation agreement” that involved 6-digit figures in separation costs. In this case, the e-mail address was “[email protected]” While it is true that I was born at night, I guess this person does not realize that it new not LAST NIGHT! “She” (?) wanted to know the name of my bank so she could send a retainer fee to enlist my services (duh…). Interesting!
March 25, 2014 at 8:08 pm, Marcia bennett said:
Yes this people try to do that with our firm in ky, she claimed that her ex owe her a lot money and she wants him to pay her by using her office I hope the FBI gets her
April 01, 2014 at 5:34 pm, Jon Dupee said:
We received an email with a separation agreement and divorce decree seeking to retain us to bring an enforcement proceeding.
April 23, 2014 at 12:46 pm, JPR said:
Connecticut: I received the following email at 3:53 am which had a misspelling in the subject line stating “Legal Enquiry…” and a short letter stating “Can you or your office assist me to enforce a separation agreement? Reply if you can assist me.” No name was given at the conclusion of the letter but the sender’s name, HANIA ALLEN, [email protected], did appear in the email transmission line. I am glad I checked.
April 28, 2014 at 4:38 pm, Sherrie M. said:
We received emails from Hania Marmon requesting services and today we received a check for $497,500.00 dollars. Too bad this fraud hit our office a couple of years ago when we encountered the same story (different players). That time we received a check for $298,000.00. We had it shredded.
April 30, 2014 at 8:37 am, GMM said:
Like the other commenters above, my firm received an email from [email protected] with the message “Please do you handle child support enforcement in violation of a court order regarding support payments?”
When I inquired as to the details, I got two separation agreement documents with judgements in the mid- six figures from “Nagoya Family Court” And the email text below for those who are interested:
Sorry for the delay in response, i am contacting your office because of an agreement in place and I have tried calling but its little bit difficult to reach your law office due to the much hours difference in time, my ex husband Mr. Allen has failed to obey court order as agreed.
We entered a separation agreement incorporated, merged into and made part of the court decree for a settlement of child support, spousal support, and medical support of $1,311.020.00, he has paid me $436,820.00 but still owing $874,200.00 and he refuse now the stipulated time for completion of payment has long elapsed and i know he has the financial means to pay the balance owed to me.
And he refuse to produce the balance I request your legal services with regards to compelling him to remit balance owed to me with full force Mr. Allen now lives in Colorado .He is a citizen in your country.
Please Attached is a copy of the Separation Agreement and the Final Judgment.I will be pleased to provide further information on this case on request and I expect this to be resolved in a timely manner.
I wish to retain your firm for this purpose and let me know your retainer fee to handle this case. Please send me a copy of your retainer agreement and if the terms are acceptable I will retained your firm so we can commence the process without delay,
Thank you for your cooperation.
Ms Hania.
6F, 7-11 hamamachi, Nagasaki, 850-0853, Japan.
May 06, 2014 at 9:54 am, JV said:
We received this fraud email as well. What immediately clued us in to this being a fraud is that the supposed Japanese court order was written in English. Also the amounts referenced in the order are in US dollars rather than Japanese Yen. I wonder if people actually fall for this stuff?
June 06, 2014 at 11:31 am, Nancy said:
Our office received an e-mail from [email protected] with the same story. I googled the name and got this website.
This the message we got:
Thank you for your response to my message. I would have visited your office if I was in the states but I presently live and own a business here in Doha, Qatar, while my former husband Allen Marmon who is a citizen of United State lives in your jurisdiction in Florida. We fell in love during his UN deployment visit to Japan 1991 and got married 3rd of May, 1992, at Nagoyav Family Court. He is a medical practitioner for the UN. Due to my conductive hearing problem (Disability) it is difficult to talk to you on phone, would have loved to discuss this matter on phone but I can read and write very well
I want you to know that, we agreed under a separation agreement, merged into and made part of the court order for a settlement of Child Support, Spouse Support and Medical Support. He has only paid 40% of the agreed settlement. The stipulated time for the completion of payment December 22nd, 2013 has long elapsed.
This is the reason why I contacted your firm to enforce or litigate matter if he fails to pay as there is already an agreement in place. I will send the details of the court order, and other papers as soon as am sure if you can handle the said claim.
Yours Faithfully,
Hania.
June 18, 2014 at 5:39 pm, Guido Gaiteri said:
I’ve got the same email yesterday. Thanks.